Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave

When my daughter was born, we started reading to her almost immediately. I was delighted when she learned how to turn the pages herself—she was 7 months old and it felt like suddenly I could see into a future when she was a child not a baby. As working parents, bedtime became a sacred time, a time when we were all hers and she was all ours. Some nights we’d read a dozen books: everything from the classics we were raised on (some were the actual physical copies we grew up with, handed down by our parents) to the new beautiful books coming out by contemporary authors and illustrators. 

Our library grew and I started to notice themes emerging, especially when it came to bedtime books. There was the “Goodnight Objects” genre, all clearly based on the structure and popularity of Goodnight Moon. There was the “Bedtime Routine Reinforcement” genre, in which the child is walked through the nightly routine of prepping for bed (usually by a beloved television character). And then there is the “Parent Ugly Cry” genre: beautiful poetic books about growing up and growing old that turn the parent-reader into a puddle of emotions. What I didn’t see were a lot of bedtime books about reflecting on your day and setting intentions for the next. 

I had the idea for this book when Ramona was a little over a year old. I wanted to write something uplifting, encouraging, and empowering—a book to help end the day excited for all the possibilities that tomorrow could bring. There are plenty of inspirational books out there for young readers, but this would be different. It wouldn't just encourage kids to be the best they can be—it would give them the opportunity to reflect on their day and even introduce the very grown-up concept of self-forgiveness. I worked on it for about a year before approaching a publisher, and in that time it matured alongside my tiny muse. I’m incredibly proud of how it turned out, and I’m so happy to have partnered with Penguin Workshop to bring it into the world.